Fort Bliss soldier Assaulted and Killed while serving 2 day jail sentence.

[Unity+]

I find this revolting:

 

 

 

 

An active-duty Fort Bliss soldier self-reported for a two day DWI sentence at the El Paso County Jail in 2012 but died before he saw the light of day or his family again.

In July 2012, KFOX14 anchor Erika Castillo reported on the story of the mysterious circumstances surrounded the death of Sgt. James Brown while he was in jail.

KFOX14 fought all the way to the Texas attorney general to obtain the video to learn what happened to Brown before dying.

The graphic video obtained shows the moments before the death of Brown.

WARNING: THE FOOTAGE OBTAINED CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Brown served two tours of combat duty in Iraq. The decorated 26-year-old was on active duty at Fort bliss in July 2012, when he left his family for the weekend to self-report for a two day DWI sentence at the El Paso County Jail. When he checked in, jail records show that Brown reported in writing to the jail that he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.

http://www.foxsanantonio.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/graphic-video-fort-bliss-soldier-moments-before-his-death-while-custody-12884.shtml#.VVsmaUZGSd5

 

When is the system going to change? I don't know if there were racial implications or simply police officers being jealous of this guy's position, or them being impatient. It has got to stop. People talk about passing laws. Why can't we just enforce the laws that we already have?

Edited May 19, 2015 by Unity+

[Phi for All]

When Reagan emptied out the mental health facilities, I think he set the tone for most conservative voters, that people with head problems are scary and not the public's business. I think it has filtered down to many government offices, including law enforcement. Over the years, we've been slowly paying the price for ignorance.

 

It's ridiculous that these officers assumed this prisoner was faking his symptoms, or didn't have a protocol for dealing with a prisoner in such obvious distress. And the protocol they did have, sedate this enormous guy before he injures one of us, was incorrect to use on someone who's having trouble breathing.

 

There's also kind of a nasty Catch-22 going on here. It's similar to what happens in the case of a dog disciplining a human infant that's pulling the dog's tail. The dog trains its puppies to STOP doing a certain action when the dog grabs the puppy's head in its mouth and starts to bite down a bit. The puppy's instinct is to freeze, whereupon the dog lets up on the grip. But a human baby has no such instincts, and when the dog bites to make the behavior STOP, the baby thrashes, making the dog bite harder. It ends badly for both.

 

In much the same way, modern police procedure tells those cops to subdue the prisoner, make him hold still. But how effective is that going to be when the prisoner is saying he can't breathe? It's the hardest thing in the world not to flail when lack of breath makes you panic. And I doubt the police are like the dog, and begin to let up as soon as motion stops. They're going to expect the worst, that this prisoner is just playing possum.

 

I don't think the military angle helped at all. Rather than treating Sgt Brown with more respect because he was actively enlisted, I think all the police saw was a big, dangerous prisoner, highly trained in combat, who was in jail for something he did wrong.

 

There was one allusion to an episode of PTSD the prisoner had that set this all off. I'd like to know what went on there, why that caused things to escalate. Other than a few louder comments, I barely heard anything Brown said. He wasn't as coherent as people usually are when screaming at law enforcement.

[Unity+]

There was one allusion to an episode of PTSD the prisoner had that set this all off. I'd like to know what went on there, why that caused things to escalate. Other than a few louder comments, I barely heard anything Brown said. He wasn't as coherent as people usually are when screaming at law enforcement.

From what I can see in the video, it just seemed like an overreaction that caused his death. From what was said, he didn't do anything besides not communicate with them at all. In fact, it seemed like they got impatient and when to full lengths because they got really angry.

[Phi for All]

He had "an episode" that caused him to bleed (I was wrong, it's not clear it's a PTSD episode, just mentioned right after they said he'd reported in writing that he'd been diagnosed). It looked like he smeared some blood on the window in the door, like he wanted them to do something about it, but then he wouldn't talk to them about it.

 

This is where reason breaks down for me. What was this "episode" like, was it frustration, deep sadness, violence? Was there more blood than we saw? What caused the blood? Was it something the guards needed to take away from him, or something in the room that needed to be fixed? Why did the blood signal the guards that they needed to suit up the riot squad to intervene with this prisoner who came in voluntarily?

 

If they didn't know where the blood was coming from, and Brown wouldn't tell them, I can see the need to find out. But I find it hard to believe those guards were so concerned with the prisoner's bleeding that they'd pile on top of him and ignore his pleas for a breath. If that's true, they asphyxiated him because they were afraid he'd bleed to death on them.